Smart Sensing in Mobility: a LoRaWAN Architecture for Pervasive Environmental Monitoring

In this paper, the authors present the architecture of a wireless sensing system for environmental monitoring, exploiting public transport as the instrument to pervasively collect data. The overall system is based on the LoRa modulation and the LoRaWAN communication protocol and exploits a wireless sensing device to be positioned on board on means of transport. The sensing device integrates a microcontroller, a LoRaWAN data transmission module, a GPS module for localization and a set of gas sensors detecting the presence in the atmosphere of a wide range of polluting substances. The device is then able to collect the environmental data and to transfer them to a LoRaWAN server, together with the position of the vehicle carrying it on board, recorded by means of GPS. By integrating a large number of these devices on public transport it may be possible to collect pervasively and in real-time data about pollution levels in a large area such as a city centre. Moreover, the whole LoRaWAN network infrastructure may be shared with other services as for example waste management or traffic monitoring, thus perfectly fulfilling the Smart City paradigm.